Magecraft and Madness
by The4Ryan9
Summary: A normal man with a normal life and normal aspirations gets the chance to explore a world that is anything but normal. Will include a deep dive into the complex system of mechanics that is Type Moon magic, action and combat, and many relatively small time skips as we go through this man's early life and introduction to magecraft.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Alright, to get started this is gonna be a long one, I'll mark off where the unnecessary and ranty stuff is if you wanna skip it.**

**We'll start with the simplest part, next update will be this again, after that you can expect either AtB or FGG. **

**This is my newest story Magecraft and Madness, there's gonna be people who aren't happy I'm starting another story because it means my others will get less attention, and that's fair but this is my decision and honestly it won't take away too much from my other stories since I more often need a break from writing them, and not a break from writing.**

**There will also be people who aren't happy because this, is an OC story. That means OC protag and plenty of OC side characters, canon characters will be in the story, few at first but more in more prominent roles over time. This is where I go into rant mode, you can skip if you want just go down past the line breaks.**

* * *

**So when I first started reading fanfics I held the popular opinion that OCs were strictly inferior to canon characters, after all, why write a fanfic if you're not gonna use the canon characters? And besides, the canon characters were often better than OCs. I started out reading SAO on here, so the first story to change my mind about this was Halkagenia Online. One of the best stories I've read here to date, though it does suffer a bit of 'first chapter-itis' (OOCness and stretching the suspension of disbelief to get the setup working in early chapters). The story is definitely worth checking out for anyone interested in Familiar of Zero or SAO though it is unfortunately dead and has been for a long time it's in total 1,321k, counting three volumes and side stories, making it worthy of reading regardless. **

**The story, slowly and over time,introduces OCs and pushes them into more central and important roles in the story, and I absolutely love it. By the time I was done some of my favorite characters were OCs, and while I still didn't believe you could write a story with an OC protag as good as one with a canon protag. **

**Kenchi618 proved me wrong. **

**Two of my favorite stories that are currently being worked on and updated are Extraordinary Times and Less Than Zero, both written by this man. They're OC focused stories taking place in the Marvel and DC worlds respectively and a lot of what I think of good OC stories comes from these. **

**There's also the SI Metallover's Self Insert Adventure by, you guessed it Metallover that showed me where to shove my pessimistic beliefs about SIs. **

**There's also Fate:Hidden Order, an OC story by Thanatos's Scribe, a story I've been working to beta for. I help because the story has potential and the author has more, and it'd be a shame to let that sit when they're willing to put in the work with a little help. **

**With the exception of Hidden Order(which I believe could become that good one day) these stories are all some of the best I've found on this site, up there with names most of you will know like In Flight, God Slaying Bladeworks and a Demon Lord's Hero. They convinced me this was possible if very difficult. So I'm trying my own swing at it.**

* * *

**TLDR: I thought OCs were shit once, I've been proven very wrong by some very great writers and want to take my own shot at it.**

**The story itself needs little explanation that isn't given in story, time frame is 2006 with FSN occurring winter end of year of 04. This is FSN universe by the way, so characters from Tsukihime cannot appear, little known fact is the two stories occur on mutually exclusive time lines. I won't be revealing any canon characters that will eventually make an appearance.**

**The story, due to what it is, will have a lot of exposition and discussion on intricate details about magecraft. As much as possible of this is canon, but magecraft, or 'the type moon magical system', is extremely complex in a very unique way. Most of it is about concepts and ideas intermixed with strict rules, meaning any talk of magecraft beyond what we see as canonically possible is all theories by fans, including a lot of what I will use in this story. If you disagree with me, please do it respectfully, and if you want to discuss what I talk about, please make it just that, a discussion, not just throwing flames around and yelling into the void. **

**Sorry for such a long AN, it shouldn't happen again but I just felt there were thing I was obligated to talk about and people I was obligated to reference, because I wouldn't be here now if not for them and their stories. Anyone who had read a single sentence of Servants of Aincrad knows just how bad my writing used to be, but I looked at the great stories on this site and how even in them the writers had improved, and I realized that if I wanted to write stories and write good ones, I just had to write more. **

**I still may not be great at this, and I know there are many out there far, far better than me. But now I look at these great stories and think, 'one day, I'll write something like that', and every chapter I post I feel it getting closer. **

**Thanks for your time and support, I'll do my best to prove those who believe in my right. **

**This is my new story Magecraft and Magic. **

I sighed as I tugged on the green duffel bag pulling the strap up to my shoulder, looking around the barren bedroom one final time, bare bed frame and plain grey walls, before turning and walking out the door. I didn't bother checking any of the other rooms in the small apartment, knowing fully well that the last of my personal effects were in the bag I carried.

Everything else would be sold off and put into a savings account that I could access once I turned eighteen next year. I paused in front of a mirror on the wall by the door to the apartment, taking a good look at myself.

I was a good height, 178 centimeters when I had least measured myself in the spring, completely normal for my age. Short brown hair, though my bangs a little long covering the top of my forehead since it had been sometime since I'd had a haircut. My eyes were what really made me pause though, a bright green, one that had been so vibrant not so long ago but seemed so dead as I stared into my reflection now.

I gave another sigh, probably not the last for today, as I turned away from the mirror and walked out the door, my hands on autopilot as I pulled out a key and locked the door. My eyes had lacked that life ever since my parents died a few weeks back in a car crash. It wasn't as if I was all that torn up about the loss, while I respected and was grateful towards my parents there hadn't been all that much love between us.

Oh, sure they did their jobs, got me in a nice school, fed me clothed me, raised me right, kept me from the bad crowd, made sure my grades were right, and all of that stuff. But that was all, they both worked late and worked often, even working most holidays. I never resented them for it but at the same time it didn't really change my impression of them. The little time they did have off was spent with just the two of them, that was what they had been doing when they got hit by a truck, going to dinner together.

Now here I was, seventeen years old with no living relatives to speak of since both my parents had been only children of older couples. Too old to be adopted, less than a year from my birthday next summer but until then I'd have to live at an orphanage on the outskirts of London. I'd probably have to take care of the kids there, help out around the place and all that. After that I'd be fine, life insurance meant I'd have enough money to put myself through college and still have some left over to hold me till I found a job.

Dropping the key off at the counter I walked out of the building into the crisp autumn air, pulling my scarf tight around my neck as I felt the chill. I grabbed the handle of the cab door sliding in and setting my bag on the seat next to me. I didn't say I word to the driver, he already knew where to go and I wasn't one for small talk with strangers. I settled down in the back seat and watched the landscape pass as he started driving, preparing myself for my new life.

* * *

It had gone about how I expected over the last week, children of varying ages clamoring for help on schoolwork, or attention, or for another player in their game. All the while I put up with it and helped them, or rather helped the kind older woman who managed the place. It was the least I could do after all, it was somewhat more expensive to feed a grown man than a toddler and I'm sure she didn't plan on caring for men well past puberty when she took the job either.

Still, despite the constant noise that resulted from over a dozen small children in one place and the utter lack of free time I experienced it was an enjoyable life, one I wouldn't' mind having for the rest of my legal childhood. It all changed on my first saturday though.

I had been hoping to take the weekend day to go out and enjoy myself. Get some air, maybe just a walk, maybe swing by an arcade or a mall, just waste some time. That had been put to a stop quickly. It turned out that saturdays were known as adoption days around here, since potential parents mostly stopped by on them since the kids would all be home from classes and they themselves tended to have more freetime.

Now normally this wouldn't matter to me since I was already old enough that adoption wasn't something I nor any sane couple would want, but today was a little different since rather than a parent it was a teacher coming around. Something about looking for students for some kind of fancy boarding school, I had only kind of been listening since I doubted they'd want me. My grades were fine and all but it wasn't as if they were that impressive, and they were looking for young kids too, not potential college students.

Still though, I stuck around, both on the off chance I'd get a nice scholarship into a good school and to help the caretaker keep the kids calm and obedient for the guy when he came around.

It was around ten when he showed up and I had spent the whole morning chasing unruly kids and making sure they didn't ruin their nice clothes rolling in mud or whatever it was they did. He came through the front door just as I was grabbing a particularly feisty boy and telling him for the third time that sword fighting with the toilet plunger wasn't allowed.

The man was tall, around ten centimeters taller than I was, wearing a fine black suit and tie with long slick black hair and a stern look on his face. He looked like the kind of teacher who'd still be hitting kids with a meter stick if it was allowed.

"Ah!" I snapped out of analysis of the man to realize I was holding a plunger in one hand and a small child under my other arm like a sack of potatoes. "Er, I'll be back in a minute." I dropped the kid I was holding on his bum and ignored the raspberry he blew me as I ran to stow the cleaning instrument. I set it in the storage closet and was about to shut the door when I remembered what I had just been holding. I paused for a moment before grabbing a baby wipe and rubbing my hands with it until it began to dry out.

I returned to the entrance to see the man critically watching the kids scramble around. I made sure he spotted the baby wipe before I tucked it in my jeans back pocket so I could toss it later. "You're the teacher right?" I addressed him as I put my hand forward. He looked at my hand with his squinted eyes and for a moment I thought he wasn't going to shake it before he grabbed it in his own.

"Professor actually, Waver Velvet. I assume you work here. Mister?" He trailed off obviously asking for my own name.

"John, Johnathan Taylor. But actually I'm technically one of the orphans. I say technically since I'll be eighteen next year, so I'm not really planning on getting adopted. Parents died about a month ago so I needed somewhere to go before I hit legal age and started on college." There a twinge of sadness and sympathy in Waver's eyes and I thought maybe I had misjudged him.

"I'm sorry for your loss"

"Don't worry about, my parents were good people, and I'm grateful to them, but we were never all that close so I'm not really all that torn up about it." I looked away from the man to see that the caretaker had gotten all the children calmed down enough to line up for the man, and was now waving for me to come line up too.

"Alright, nice talking to you, hope you give some of these brats a chance. They're a feisty bunch but most of them are good kids." I gave the man a wave as I walked across the room to line up with the kids. I hadn't wanted to stand with them but the caretaker insisted and I had yet to be able to refuse the woman.

I turned back to look at the man again, as his eyes swept over all of us. He paused for moment on me before continuing. Suddenly he brought his hand up to his mouth as he had a short coughing fit.

"Oh my, are you okay?" The caretaker voiced her concern for the man but my attention was on something else. A glint of, some kind of metal? I had only seen it for a moment but I could've sworn he had been holding some kind of pendant. And was he muttering something as he coughed? Maybe he was just cussing, and simply didn't want the kids to hear.

"I'm fine, I've just been coming down with something lately." He stopped coughing and took a moment to clear his throat before looking back to us all again. His eyes scanned over us all much quicker this time pausing once or twice on a couple of kids before moving on. He finally came to the end of the line and looked to the caretaker, no wait, he was looking at me? I watched him closely, and met his eyes for a few seconds, yep definitely looking straight at me.

"Johnathan, correct?" I blinked as he addressed me, stunned that he actually had interest in me as a student. Had I left that much of an impression as we chatted? I nodded stunned when I finally registered his question. "You said you planned to go to college after you turned eighteen?"

"Er, uh, yeah." I stuttered my way through my answer. "I mean, I took my exams early when my parents died, so I wouldn't have to worry about school on top of everything else. So now I'm just waiting till I'm legal before I start college so that that won't be an issue either." It seemed like a good decision at the time, till I realized that that left me with nothing to do for almost a full year.

"Hmmm, how would you like to get started early?" I blinked at what he was offering me.

"Uh, yeah? I mean, that sounds great! Um, when would I start exactly?" He looked at me for a moment before chuckling.

"Let's talk details first." He turned to walk out the door and I paused for a second before practically leaping to follow him outside. Details? What kind of details? What'd he wanna say that he thought it'd be a deal breaker? Was this college that tough? Maybe it was a super preppy one for rich kids? Oh shit! Maybe it was super expensive and he didn't think I could afford it!

The door closed behind me and I turned to look at Waver as he stopped about a meter from the door and pulled a pipe out of his coat pocket and began stuffing it with tobacco. "Hmm, now my school is a little, strange, I suppose would be the best way to put it. We don't teach normal materials like math, science or literature. We teach, special topics, to special people. I've determined that you're capable of learning these special topics so I decided to give you the chance to learn them."

"Wait special topics? Like, what? Some super advanced art, or military training, or something?" I paused for a moment as an idea dawned on me. "Is this a school a cult?"

"Bwahahaah!" I flinched as the professor started laughing. "No, no, we're not a cult, though I suppose that'd make more sense to you." Wait, this school made less sense than a cult, what the hell was this place? He snapped his fingers twice, once to draw my attention based on the way his eyes met mine, and then again and then again to light his pipe.

...

WAIT WHAT!

"How, how did you do that? Some kind of trick? Gun powder on your fingers? Wait then how did you not burn yourself?" I started running ideas through my head, discarding them as fast as I came up with new ones but never quite figuring out the trick. I was brought from my thoughts by a cloud of smoke in my face as Waver sought to draw my attention.

"It's not a trick." The look of utter disbelief I gave him produced a smoke filled sigh before he spoke again. "Watch." The command was simple, short, and something I had every intention of following as he raised his empty hand in front of him. Slowly, ever so slowly, something began taking shape in his hands. It was a ghostly image at first and I couldn't fully make out what it was, but it gained shape and detail until the man was holding an exact replica of the pipe he was smoking in the other hand.

No, not exact, it was the same size and shape, the same color wood, but this one was smooth and unblemished while the other was worn from use. They both had some kind of strange lettering over them, and while I dismissed it as purely aesthetic before I couldn't help but wonder now.

A shake of the non-smoking pipe drew my eyes away from its copy. Waver paused making sure he had my attention before he threw the thing to the ground. Normally I'd expect the pipe to bounce harmlessly off the dirt, maybe scratch itself on a rock, instead it shattered. And it didn't split into splinters and chunks of wood, no, it turned into light. Motes of blue light that floated a few centimeters into the air and dispersed before fading away. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I looked back up to the man. Alright, either I'd gotten started on a drug habit and hadn't even realized it or,

"Not a trick." The words felt heavy and foreign even as I spoke them.

"Nope, not a trick. Magecraft. This is what I'm offering you to teach you, not just magecraft, and how to use it. But about an entire part of the world that you'd never heard of before now, something you didn't even realize existed, the moonlight world."

"So, magic is real and you wanna take me to Hogwarts to teach me some?" I tried to add a bit of levity to the situation but the gymnastics my stomach was suddenly doing didn't add any confidence to my voice.

"Hogwarts isn't real, and don't mention those books again. Far too many magus would be offended enough to challenge you to a duel over them. And I'm not teaching magic, magic and magecraft are different things." While I could understand the Harry Potter ban I couldn't help but give him a strange look about the magic magecraft thing. Wasn't what he did magic? It really looked like it. Evidently he recognized my confusion.

"I'll explain it later if you decide to learn. For now you need to know that learning magecraft is dangerous. Not just because of all the things in the moonlight world that could kill you, but because the act of using magecraft itself is dangerous, could potentially kill you if you do it wrong." That gave me pause, and made my stomach start on some rather impressive gymnastics. At this rate it'd be going to the olympics. "I need to know if you're willing to accept those risks to learn it."

My head was spinning and my heart was racing. I was rethinking everything I knew about the world, every decision I had ever made in my life, rethinking my entire life plan as I realized just how much of my life was a lie. Then I realised I didn't have a plan.

I mean, sure I was gonna go to college, get a degree, get a job, get a home, get a life. But I didn't know what college, or what degree, or what job, or what home, or what life I wanted. That had all been something to figure out later, something to decide in the future. But I realised that I had never really wanted any of those things. Needed them yes, I needed a home, and for that I needed a job, and for that I needed a degree, and for that I needed to go to college.

But now I had the chance to do something else, something that I hadn't thought possible, to explore and discover a world I hadn't know was possible. And suddenly my stomach settled down, and my heart stopped pounding, and although my thoughts were still racing I felt oddly calm.

"Yeah, I'm willing to accept them. I want you to teach me magecraft."

* * *

After that there had been relatively few details to be ironed out. He told me he'd come and get me in a few days to move me into the boarding school, when I asked about money he said not to worry, and that it was going to be free for at least the next year, more depending on my results.

The only major thing he'd done was something called 'opening my magic circuits'. He'd given me a rock and told me to swallow it. He laughed at me when I asked if it'd hurt pooping it out. I thought he was weak to toilet humor, and it was only after some very excruciating pain that I realized it was because pooping out a boulder would have been less painful than whatever the hell that pebble did to me.

He'd taught me how to 'open' and 'close' my circuits after that. Something about a trigger or switch image that I'd use to do it. I was kinda delirious with pain at the time, but I'd ended up imagining door, opening and closing it.

I never got the chance to ask him what these magic circuits were or what they did, but I'd been able to turn them on and off since then. When I left them on for a while my body started to heat up a bit and I'd ended up opening and closing them over and over since then. There was one time when I left them open when I went to take a nap and woke up when my body started getting sore.

Since then I'd been careful about leaving them on too long, but at the same time I tried pushing myself to see how long I could keep them on without getting uncomfortable. I was topping out just under three hours but I didn't know if that was my body getting used to it or if I was getting stronger somehow.

It was wednesday when Waver finally showed up to pick me up, and I'd been packed for three days.

"You seem excited." Waver's smirk would've annoyed me if I wasn't so excited about the prospect of learning more about magic, er magecraft.

"Yeah, you kinda left me hanging there, started promising about secrets of the universe and all that and all I get out of it is a pocket warmer spell." It's not as if I wasn't enjoying turning my circuits on and off every chance I got, but I'd kinda like to know what that's supposed to be doing.

"I can't give you secrets of the universe, if I'd found the root I wouldn't be out here driving around teenage kids on my off hours." The professor shook his head as he started turning back to the car but then he paused suddenly. "Wait, what was that about a pocket warmer mystery?"

Mystery? That was another weird word for the list. Seriously what was with all the fancy terms and differences, magecraft versus magic, mystery, I still wasn't even clear on what a magus was. "Er, that circuits thing, I've been messing around with it but so far all it does it make me get hot if I use it too long."

"Idiot, I thought I told you not to mess around with that! Overuse of your magic circuits can permanently cripple you." I blinked at his outburst, and was only snapped out of my shock when he got into the car and started it. I scrambled into the passenger seat before he could take off.

"Uh, I may have been screaming in pain when you said that, kinda hard to remember after I ate your magic rock." I was sort of confused why no one came outside to check on us when I started screaming bloody murder but I had chalked the whole thing up to magic bullshit.

"Probably should've expected that. Though honestly I'm surprised you remembered how to start your circuits but not what they do." The magus gave a heavy sigh before reaching into his coat for a pipe.

"Are you really gonna do that in here?" I said referring to his pipe.

"Yep." He spoke up, completely unrepentant.

"Can you at least roll down a window?" I tried for at least some level of concession.

"Nope." His denial was swift and absolute.

"Why?" I sought out a reason for his denial.

"Too cold out." And he gave me one.

I gave my own sigh, recognizing a lost battle when I saw one. "Wait, so what do my circuits do other than make me toasty on a winter night?" I got an odd look for that one but the man did end up answering my question.

"They're essentially your power source for any magecraft you do. There are other ways to power your mysteries but none of them are as efficient or easy to use as your own circuits." I gave a nod at his words as I tried to make sense of them.

"So, my magic circuits give me my MP, that I can use for all the neat little tricks I'll learn as I level up. But is my mana bar full and it empties as I cast spells or does it fill as my circuits run?" This one seemed to get to my new professor.

"You play video games?" He seemed slightly surprised, yet also pleased to hear that.

"Yeah, I don't play a ton of them but I got a GBA and a good number of cartridges for it. You do too?" I don't know if it was more surprising that my first college professor played video games, or that my first magic teacher did. Nevermind definitely the magic one.

"Yep, an old, friend I suppose, got me into them." There was a faraway look on the man's face for a moment before he spoke again. "Anyway your max prana, the energy we use for magecraft, is set as soon as you activate your circuits and will drain very slowly as long as their open and more and more as you activate mysteries. Most of this stuff I'll be teaching in class so we can leave the explanations for later."

I wanted to dispute that, to ask more questions like what it was he'd done with the pipe the other day, or what kind of magi-er, magecraft, I'd be learning, but I also knew it wasn't fair to make him teach me all this stuff now just so he'd have to explain it again in class.

"Alright, I can wait then." The look Waver gave me told me he didn't expect me to give in that easily. I huffed and looked away before I realized that I still had non-magecraft questions. "Wait, when exactly do we have class?" Another thought occurred to me. "Wait what is this school even called?"

I could almost feel the smugness in the smirk he gave me. And I gave him my own confused look before the car came to sudden halt. For a moment I thought we'd gotten stuck in traffic but then looked out the window and realized that we'd pulled over and parked without me realizing it. I turned back around as I heard the car shut off and saw the professor getting out. I scrambled out as well, taking a moment to snag my bag out of the back seat first.

I got out and turned around to look at where we had stopped and found myself in London. Not the far reaching outskirts of the city, or the beaten down slums, or a bunch of apartment buildings. But London, the tourist attractions, museums, monuments, foreigners walking around. I could see the River Thames from where I stood and I found myself looking at the waters. it was still early and the gulls were searching for there breakfast.

I looked away from the water as Waver walked past me, his hand reaching into his coat as he passed. He turned around and looked at me as he took a drag off his pipe, the river in the background and standing proud in the skyline Big Ben itself.

He took one long draw from his pipe, one hand in his coat pocket as he stood casually with the world famous monument just to his left in my view. "Welcome to the Clock Tower." I was in awe for a moment and then I realized something.

"Alright, how much setup did this take?" Waver gave me a stunned look as he spoke, and I swore he almost dropped his pipe. "I mean seriously, there's no way this spot just so happened to be empty, and that you just happened to see it as we were driving past." I mean, it was theoretically possible, the same way it was possible for one of those gulls to get hit by lightning.

"Er, I may have set up a bounded field a few days ago, one that discouraged people from using this parking spot. But that was more so I'd have a spot to use so we wouldn't be carrying all your luggage across town."

"Uh-huh, sure." I chose not to question what a bounded field was right now, probably something I'd learn to use in class. "So the school is called Clock Tower then? And what, is it inside of Elizabeth Tower?" That was the only reason for the name I could figure out, also the reason for the awesome posing Waver had set up.

"Clock Tower the name the organization itself, as well as their headquarters. You don't need to know all about it now but they do a lot more than just teaching magus. And most of Clock Tower is actually underground, though the more impressive offices are inside of the actual Clock Tower, mine included." I blinked at that, I didn't realize that my new teach was some kind of big wig. "C'mon, we can get underground over this way, you'll be staying in one of Clock Tower's dorms."

I followed the man, my green duffel under my arm as I walked. He lead us into a back alley before turning and going down a kind of concealed staircase. You wouldn't notice it if you were in a rush or not paying attention, but if you were aware of your surroundings you couldn't miss it. I took my first step down and all of a sudden I got this really, really weird tingle across my skin.

"Uuurgh." Waver gave me an odd look at my outburst. "Sorry, got this really weird feeling a second ago."

"That's probably your sixth sense, anyone with active magic circuits has the ability to sense magecraft. It materializes as one of your standard five and how well you can sense the supernatural varies person to person." He looked back over his shoulder at me. "I'm surprised you noticed, it may not a top tier bounded field but it's not some amateurs work, to notice it means that you've already used your circuits enough to get used to sensing prana."

"Er, I did say I'd been practising switching them on and off." Really I'd been just playing around with them but I didn't want to admit that. "Urgh, that, bounded field right, it's really weird. I still feel weird and for some reason I keep thinking of other places I should be."

I mean, I really didn't have other places to be, I had places I could be, the arcade for one, but now going and checking out a few of the tourist attractions sounded nice. I'd never really checked them out despite living relatively close all my life.

"That's due to the bounded field. It discourages civilians from wandering in. The fact that you noticed that the thoughts were unnatural means you're starting to develop your magic resistance. Simply by running your circuits you can flush foreign prana out of your body and prevent any magic from directly influencing you. The more prana you run through your body and the more your body is used to having prana in it the easier it'll be to resist mage craft. Try switching on your circuits, it'll help cancel the effects."

I nodded at his words and stopped walking for moment to focus. Closing my eyes I thought about the door, grabbing the knob on the front, twisting it as I felt something start up inside me, kicking into action as I pushed it open. As I felt a now familiar flush of warmth spread through my body my thoughts cleared up and was able to focus again. "Wait, why is it called magic resistance when what we do is all called magecraft?"

"It's an old term, magic used to be more common, to the point where most magus would be capable of it. There's a number of reasons for it but no one's bothered to change terms since then so we still call it magic resistance." That, that actually makes a lot of sense. There were a ton of words and terms that no one cared to change simply because it was convenient.

We continued walking in silence for a while, I was simply relishing the feeling of my circuits running and analyzing the feeling of the bounded field on my skin. It was strange, feeling the magecraft as it was active around me. I hadn't felt anything around Waver before, but I suppose that was because I hadn't had my circuits when he first used magecraft around me, and whatever bounded field he'd had around his parking spot must've been more subtle than this one.

Suddenly the feeling vanished as we stopped descending and began walking through a horizontal tunnel. Despite how deep underground we were it didn't feel dank or desperate, it wasn't dark as there were braziers every few meters on one wall or the other.

"Who keeps all these things lit?" There were way too many for some janitor to be running around with a box of matches lighting the things.

"They're enchanted, they keep themselves lit twenty four seven. You might be able to feel them." I nodded as he spoke and focused on my senses, now that he mentioned it I did feel something it was just-

"Well that's useless." Waver gave me a look so I went on. "I can feel them, it's just that, they feel warm. It's different than how a normal fire would feel, only a bit though so I can barely tell that it's there. If this is how I sense all fire magecraft I ain't gonna be able to tell what's real fire and what's magic fire before it's too late." Waver's laugh drew me from my sulking.

"Yeah, you'll probably sense all fire based magecraft similarly, oh well, some magus are so bad at sensing that they're practically blind to the stuff, so you're better off than them, and as long as you have somebody who is good at sensing backing you up being able to do it yourself isn't that important. C'mon, this way." Waver took a sudden turn and opened a door I hadn't even realized was there, down another, much smaller flight of stairs and into a new hallway, this one with many doors on each side of the hall.

"These are some of Clock Tower's dorms for low ranking magus, you can stay here free for the time being. Your room is number 324, stairs to go down are at the end of the hall. You're allowed to use low level magecraft in the dorms and place any bounded fields in your room you want, not that you know any magecraft that isn't low ranking or how to make bounded fields yet." He gave me a small smile at that as he passed me a bronze colored key with the number 324 printed on it.

"When do classes start?" It was the first and foremost question on my mind.

"Classes are every monday, wednesday, and friday starting next week, two to four in lecture hall B4 in the Basics wing of the Modern Magecraft Department." Waver pulled a rolled up sheet of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me. "Here, it's a map to help you out." He paused for a moment and looked me over before shrugging. "That's it then, see ya." The man turned and walked away, his words and posture as apathetic as ever.

It didn't take long to find my room, every door had a sign nailed to the front with the number on it, and since room the floors went down instead of up I was already on the third floor.

I slid the key into the hole, unlocking it and getting ready to enter before I paused for a second and looked to the paper Waver had handed me, an idea in my head.

I tossed the duffel bag in my shut the door behind it, before fumbling with the key to lock the door. Once finished I turned around I unrolled the page in my hands scanning it over to get my bearings and find somewhere of interest. It took a few seconds but soon I rolled the paper back up and began jogging down the hall ready to explore.

* * *

I looked down to the map in my hands before looking up again. I was pretty sure I was in the right place this time, I had almost gotten lost a few times before now but I was feeling pretty good about this time. I walked down the hall a bit before pushing open a large pair of wooden doors. I looked around in slight awe at the giant bookshelves and thick volumes I found myself surrounded by as I entered. Yeah, I thought, this is definitely the library.

"Excuse me." My head shot forward as someone spoke up, a large black man stood behind a rectangular counter, papers books and writing utensils strewn all over the thing. "The wards don't recognize you, so who are you?" I blinked at the man, large was an understatement, he had to be over two meters tall and his arms were as thick as my head..

"Uh, my name is John, Johnathan Taylor. I'm kinda new here and I was just looking around. Er, this is the library right?" The man looked like he'd be more fit to be a bouncer or a bodyguard rather than a librarian.

The giant man nodded before speaking. "Central Library for the Modern Magecraft division. The name is Victor Briar, I'm the librarian." He looked me over and I suppressed the urge to flinch as he did so. "You're new you say. Did you come here yourself or did someone bring you here?" I could tell by the way he worded it that he didn't mean the library when he said here.

"Er, Waver brought me. Said I'd be allowed to take classes here. I figured it'd be good to have a look around the place and figured since I hadn't been taught much the library would be a good place to start." I scratched my cheek as I spoke, hoping my answer was satisfactory.

"Waver, you wouldn't happen to mean Lord El Melloi II would you?" I couldn't do more than blink. "Tallish guy. Long hair, black coat, likes to smoke?"

"Yeah him." I snapped my finger and pointed at the man as he described the guy that'd introduced me to this side of the world.

"Hm, so you're part of his newest project then. Guess he found a few of you in the end." Victor turned to the side and grabbed a few things off the desk before beckoning me closer with a hand gesture. I obeyed, partly because he seemed like a nice guy overall and partly because he looked like he could crush me with one finger.

The man dropped a huge book before flipping it open to a page half filled with a list of names all in black ink. "This is a list of everyone who uses this library, sign your name here." He pointed to an empty spot on the page while handing me a pen. I grabbed it and put the point to the paper as I started to sign.

"The bounded field around the library keeps track of everyone in here at all times and if your name is on the list then you'll be mostly fine, otherwise I'll be coming to track you down and figure out what you're doing with my books." I nodded as I finished signing and handed back the pen, for a magical library having the librarian come after you for breaking the rules sounded minor, and with any other librarian it might've been.

"You don't walk through those doors at least once every five years your name gets taken off the list, you take a book outta this room I know you did and I know what book. You can read anything off of the shelves marked public in here, if you wanna take something outta the library you gotta run it by me and I can yea or nea it for whatever reason I want. In addition to books we've got papers written by members of Clock Tower, not all of these are public so if you want something you gotta ask about it." I nodded along, my eyes drifting to one of the rows of shelves around us, it wasn't hard to find a gold plaque on the end of it, 'public' engraved on it.

"No using any magecraft in here either. I know you probably don't know much but I don't care if you're reinforcing a sheet of paper or projecting a pencil. No magecraft." I looked back to the man, he was leaning forwards, one armed preseed to the desk and glaring at me.

"Ye-yes sir." I stuttered a bit and if asked I'd claim it was nervousness not fear. The guy gave me a raised eyebrow, probably trying to see if I could be trusted before he nodded and leaned back again. I took that as a sign I could leave but not before I asked one question. "Uh, any recommendations for where I should start?" Victor looked me over one more time before responding to my question a wry grin on his face as he did so.

"You should start with books on the basics of magecraft, history, and Clock Tower politics." He pointed to a shelf across the room and I followed his gesture even as he continued to speak. "_Basic Mechanics of Prana and Thaumaturgy_, _Recent History of the Moonlight World_, and _Internal Workings of The Magus Association_ would be my recommendations." I did my best to remember the names, I didn't know what half of those words meant but that was probably a sign I should read the books.

"Thanks." I waved to the man as I moved towards the shelves, intent on finding some reading material.

* * *

I stretched out my arms as I walked, the map Waver had given me in my back jeans pocket and a heavy tome under one arm. After finding a few books in the library I sat down at one of the tables there and began reading. I didn't realize how long I'd been there until Victor came by and told me he was closing up for the day.

Apparently he was the only librarian and because of that the library had very short hours, ten in the morning to five pm. That didn't change the fact that it had been around eleven when I got here and now it was past five. So after letting me check out one of the books I'd been working on, _Basic Mechanics of Prana and Thaumaturgy_, I'd been all but forcefully thrown out.

Now I was trying to find my way to cafeteria. According to Victor they gave out basic meals for free and if I was willing shell out a few pounds I could get something good to eat.

It was around quarter to six when I walked into the cafeteria. It hadn't taken me so long to get here because it was far away, it was probably a ten minute walk, if that, from the library. It had taken me so long because I got lost again.

As I entered I took a moment to look around. Plenty of large round tables and smaller square ones with chairs around them, all made of fine wood rather than cheap plastic or metal. Not many of said seats were filled considering the time, probably no more than two or three dozen people there. I looked around, noticing a counter with several people moving around behind it and one standing by a stack of plates.

I made my way over there, shifting the book under my right arm to my left as I moved. "I'd like some food please." I got a closer look at the woman behind the counter as I spoke, pale skin, grey eyes, and short blonde hair. Her features were flawless, but not in a way that was beautiful or oozed perfection, but in one that made her seem, almost boring.

"Basic food is free, meals are two pounds each and specials are available and priced on request." I narrowed my eyes as she spoke. It was monotone, normally such a way of speaking would make someone seem bored or uninterested but here she sounded natural, almost automatic.

"What meals do you have?" I ignored the strange feeling I was getting and focused on my own hunger instead.

"Meals are found in the trays to your right. The first tray contains basic food, all others are meals and cost two pounds per plate." My eyes drifted to the trays she had described, the first was filled with what I could only describe as slop. Gray, gooey, chunky, and probably tasted as bad as it looked. The other trays contained things that I actually could identify as food, hamburgers, lasagna, chicken, ham. I didn't see any side dishes but I guess there might not be any or they might be elsewhere.

"I'll take some meatloaf." I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. It required a little effort to get out a few bills while juggling my book but I got them out. I paused as I was ready to hand them over, the woman hadn't reacted to my words and I was worried she didn't even know I asked for something. In the end I just shrugged and gave her the bills.

"Thank you for your patronage." I blinked for a moment as the woman took my money and placed it into a box next to her. I was waiting for her to go to get me my food, or give me a plate so I could serve myself, or something when suddenly, an identical woman stepped up next to her, a plate of food in her hands and spoke in the same tone of voice.

"Here is your food. Have a good day." I grabbed the plate of food from her automatically still processing the fact that I was being given anything at all. It was only after she walked away that I looked down and realized what was on it. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and steamed green beans. There was even a glass of ice water and a fork.

I looked back, the woman who had taken my money was staring ahead, a not quite vacant look on her face but she didn't seem to actually be looking at anything. I looked back down the meal I now held, trying to figure out what had just happened before shrugging. If I tried to figure out every mystery I came across in this place I'd go insane before my first week was up.

It didn't take long for me to find a seat at one of the smaller square tables and pull out the book I had borrowed as I ate, Basic Mechanics of Prana and Thaumaturgy. It was an immense volume, over five hundred pages long and it wasn't one of those books that looked huge but had a large font size or a lot of blank space. The font was as small as you'd see in a dictionary and every page was covered in more black than white. Still it held a lot of valuable information.

The book didn't describe any actual mysteries I could attempt, but it did teach me a lot about how magecraft, or thaumaturgy, works. Prana, either mana or oddic prana, od for short, could be used as fuel for thaumaturgy. Mana is prana found in the atmosphere, produced by the planet in small amounts everywhere and larger amounts at ley lines. Od meanwhile, is produced within living beings, most commonly magus. Oddic prana was actually just energy of the soul and magic circuits convert that energy into od.

Theoretically every human has the same amount of prana in them but a magus' circuits determine how much prana they can actually use. The quality of them determines how efficient they are while the quantity determines how much energy from your soul you can process. I turned the page and kept reading, enraptured by the knowledge I was gaining.

Thaumaturgy in general is using any form of prana to alter the world around you within the limits of what was possible without magecraft. If it wasn't possible without the use of prana than it was magic, or True Magic. That answered one question I'd had for Waver.

There are a lot of ways to use prana to create magecraft. In theory you could simply do anything with enough willpower and prana but effectively that was only possible with great and complex mysteries.

Basic mysteries could be achieved with willpower, imagination, and the natural properties of prana. More complex ones used things like runes, words of power, gestures and magic circles to focus and control the prana. Objects could be used to further aid mysteries, if enchanted themselves they were mystic codes, otherwise they could be used as aids to focus or alter the nature of the prana used.

I heard a clacking noise and looked down to my plate. At some point I'd finished eating the whole meal and I hadn't even realized I'd started. I don't even know what any of it had tasted like. I looked back to the book for a moment before sighing and standing up. I could continue in my room later.

Just as I was looking around for somewhere to put my dishes another one of the strange women walked up and grabbed them. I was left blinking, trying to figure out how she had known I was done before giving up and standing.

I tucked the book back under one arm and pulled out my map again. Hopefully I could find my way back to my room.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Alright, it's about damn time. This chapter took longer than I wanted, much longer, mainly because while I had it finished shortly after I was done with chapter 1 I wasn't happy with it. It underwent some large revisions, I added another scene, and now it's what I present to you now. This story is gonna have a lot of time skips, the first of which are in this chapter, but their minor ones, a week here or there since this is such a long term story and there's gonna be plenty of 'down time' between important events and developments. **

**As for my other stories, I don't know what I'm updating next. Maybe FGG, that story is nearing its end and I've been having a lot of fun writing it recently, though AtB is due for an update so that might get some attention soon. I've also got a couple other story ideas I might work on more in the near future, I'm trying to hold myself back on posting anything there because the stories I've got going now spread my attentions thinly enough, but I don't know how long that'll last. Yeah, that's about all I have to say, hope you like the chapter!**

I walked out the door to my room, turning around to lock it before sliding the large key into one of my pockets. It was Monday now and it was finally time to start my first class with Waver.

I'd spent most of the last week going between the library the cafeteria and my room, just reading whatever books I could understand, I'd spent a bit of time in my room just screwing around, but without internet or cable there was only so much I could do, my Gameboy saw a lot of use.

I shifted my weight as I walked feeling the weight in the satchel I held as I mentally double checked I had everything. I'd absently mentioned to Victor that I'd need to make sure I had my backpack ready for class and he'd turned on me with a vengeance.

Apparently while backpacks were tolerated it was far more respectable to use a satchel or suitcase, and as a first generation magus, apparently someone who had no inheritance as a magus, it'd be best to do everything I could to gain favor.

I wasn't sure what he meant by that but Victor had only given me sound advice so I bought a good brown leather satchel when I went out for batteries for my dead Gameboy and filled it up with notebooks, pens, pencils, and a copy of _Recent History of the Moonlit World_ Victor had let me borrow.

Recent my ass, the first chapter began with the rise of Protestantism.

I turned a corner, my legs on autopilot as my thoughts wandered, the map Waver had given me inside the satchel. I'd found the right lecture hall last Thursday and walked to it almost half a dozen times since then. I still didn't know my way around here very well but I could easily find my room, the library, the cafeteria, and the classroom. I guess those were my priorities.

I continued walking, pulling my phone out of my pocket and flipping it open as I did. The clock display read one forty five, fifteen minutes before class starts. I knew very well that it was around that time before I pulled out my phone but I had wanted something to do with my hands. I guess I was just getting nervous.

It was only a few more minutes before I pushed open the doors to the lecture hall. There were probably over a hundred seats and despite how early I was there were a few dozen filled by a variety of people.

Men, women, boys, and girls, I saw one man whose hair was starting to gray, I saw a woman who was in a business suit, I saw people who looked only a few years older than me, and I saw kids who couldn't have been older than thirteen or fourteen.

I paused for a second and looked around for a seat before moving towards a point in the middle of the room, about halfway up the stairs and towards the left half of the room. I walked up the stairs, feeling strangely self conscious of the eyes on me as I went.

I took a seat and opened my satchel, pulling out a notebook and a pen. I paused for a moment before pulling out my book too. It'd be good to have something to read before class started.

I was reading about the rankings of the Dead Apostle Ancestors when the door to the classroom opened and all eyes snapped to the new entry. Wearing the same black coat and red scarf I had seen him in last Waver entered the room not looking towards anything but the podium.

He walked up to it without so much as acknowledging that there was anyone else in the room, placed his own briefcase on it and opened it, pulling out several papers before shutting it again and placing it on the ground next to him.

"Welcome to your first class as members of the Moonlit world. This will be unlike any class you've had before. You will not receive any grades in this class, though you will be expected to turn in papers and complete projects they will be ones of your own personal choosing. You will learn how to perform basic magecraft at a minimum and will be required to show competency with basic mysteries of Material Transmutation and Formalcraft, as well as expand into at least one other field of your choosing."

I found my hand scribbling across the page in front of me, I wasn't really sure what most of this meant but I figured it was important and I'd understand later.

"This class, and the life waiting for you after it is dangerous, even the most basic mystery performed improperly can cause serious injury, and even death. You, and only you, are responsible for your lives here, and while I will teach you to the best of my ability come this summer the class will end and you will have to stand on your own. What you learn before then and how you use it will determine your place in this world." The stern man paused for a second and took a deep breath.

"I will give you one final warning, it is not too late to back out of this, to leave and return to your mundane lives. But once you truly start to learn magecraft you will have no such chance. You will learn about a dark and callous part of the world that has remained hidden to you throughout your lives. This is your final chance to return to a more peaceful life."

There was a tension that filled the air, several people began fidgeting and a few looked from one student in the room to another. I spun my pen around in my hand, tapping the butt of it absently against the paper. Though it felt like an eternity it really couldn't have been more than thirty seconds before Waver released a sigh and spoke again.

"Alright then. Let's get started."

*line break*

I flipped my notebook closed and tossed into my satchel, stowing my pen in its usual place, a small pouch on the front of the bag. I paused before shutting it, I was almost done with my book, _Basic Mechanics and Common Issues of Formalcraft_, I'd need to swing by the Library and see what Victor could recommend for me next.

It had almost been a full month since I'd arrived at Clock Tower and ever since I'd been enthralled with my studies of magecraft. It wasn't like I'd been some kind of bookworm before I'd gotten here, but I just found magecraft so interesting, it was actual magic!

Well, actual magic, True Magic, were mysteries that were capable of doing things that were impossible without the use of prana, I would have had to be here a few centuries, or even a millennium ago to have had any chance at learning True Magic, and even then it would only be something like flight or long distance instant communication.

Anyway I'd spent most of my time reading and practising the very basic mysteries that Waver had taught us in class, Structural Analysis, Reinforcement, and Alteration. I had Structural Analysis down the best of the three, partly because it was the easiest of them, and partly because it was the easiest to practice, with the others requiring an object I was willing to risk destroying in a failed attempt.

I was at the point where I could get my results in less than a second, and the accuracy of the information I got, composition materials, weight, dimensions, and age, tended to be between eighty-seven and ninety-four percent accurate, close enough that my results could be used as an accurate basis for experiment results so long as I took multiple measurements.

I felt my stomach growl a bit and I realized I'd skipped lunch before class today. Alright, that meant library, then food. With my plan in mind I shut the case in front of me, and was doing the latches when I heard someone call out my name.

"Hey, John right?" I turned in confusion towards the source of the call. I'd never been too social of a person, and as a side effect of my obsession with the Moonlit world my previously slightly reserved lifestyle had become one of complete solitude, with the only people I regularly talked to being Waver for questions and advice and Vincent on book recommendations.

So I was understandably confused as I looked at the guy who had called out to me like we were old friends. He was a little bit taller than me with a smile as friendly as his voice. His chestnut brown hair was a little messy but it looked like it was just the natural state of his head rather than the man being unkempt. Combined with the freckles dotting his cheeks and his soft brown eyes it gave me a friendly impression of the man he seemed intent on backing up.

It was only after a few seconds of looking at him that I realized he was waiting for a response.

"Er, yeah. That's my name." I blinked in confusion before speaking again. "Who are you?" Despite my admission to not knowing who he was the man just laughed it off.

"I'm Jack Weston, though just Jack is fine. I'm not surprised surprised you don't know me since you've got your head stuck in a book half the time." I knew he wasn't being mean about from his seemingly permanent grin and cheery voice but I was still off put a bit.

"I mean, the writing might be as dry as ever but it's magic I'm reading about here, of course I'm burying my head a bit." If anything Jack's smile grew and he just laughed more.

"Nah man, it's cool. I wasn't trying to be mean or anything." His grin turned a bit sheepish and he started rubbing the back of his head. "Well, that's the reason I'm talking to you actually. Me and a couple of others were hoping you could help us with that first paper. We're all having trouble with it and were hoping you could help."

I frowned a bit I wouldn't mind helping of course but I did have my own plans, and I was getting ready to tell him this when my stomach saw fit to speak for me.

I felt my face flush and started coughing past the lump in my throat. Jack just started laughing again.

"Tell you what, why don't we talk about it over dinner. I'll buy, advance payment for your services." My coughing quickly turned into a chuckle and I nodded, happy to take him up on the offer.

*line break*

I sat down in the cafeteria, setting my food off to the side to make room for any papers or books I might need to pull out. Jack and I had walked here together and his friends were already seated. The group would've been an odd one to see anywhere, but I suppose Waver had been pulling people from all walks of life when looking for those with the potential to become magus.

"John, these these two are Adam Wilson and Sandra Pressely. Adam, Sandra, this is Johnathan Taylor."

While Jack was close enough to my own age that I couldn't tell the difference the same could not be said of these two. Sandra was a woman with pure black hair, cut short into a bob haircut. Though she was shorter her sharp features, stern eyes, and the pair of glasses she wore gave her the look of someone you didn't want to anger. I wasn't great at ages but she definitely looked like she was somewhere between five and ten years my senior.

Adam was the exact opposite, his soft features and innocent eyes made him look youthful, combined with his short height made him look almost childish.

That was probably because he was a child though.

He couldn't have been older then fourteen or fifteen, while I'd barely managed to finish secondary school before arriving here there was no way Adam had done the same. His dirty blonde hair and green eyes only added to his youthful appearance and the way he held himself scrunched up screamed shy and withdrawn.

"It is nice to meet you Johnathan, but I hope Jack isn't trying to push you into anything." Sandra spoke up first, and while her tone was hard there was a comfort and warmth to the words.

"It's nice to meet you too Sandra, and while Jack's being a little too enthusiastic about all this I don't think I'll mind helping at all." Surprisingly I found I was telling the truth, these people were earnestly reaching out and asking for help, and as long as they actually wanted help doing their work, and not someone to do it for them, I don't think I'd mind obliging.

Sandra for one seemed happy with my response, though she did shoot Jack a dirty look when I brought up his name. She then gave a much kinder gaze to Adam, silently encouraging him. After a small gulp the boy started talking.

"My name is Adam, er, thanks for helping us out John." I felt myself giving the boy my own kind gaze, he was so earnest I couldn't help it.

"It's no problem, though I'd probably be able to help better if I knew what the problem was." Adam laughed softly while Sandra shot Jack another look.

"You really didn't tell him?" Jack held his hands up at the woman in mock surrender, and probably would've stepped back if he wasn't sitting.

"I did, I told him it was about that paper we're supposed to do." Jack was referring to Waver's first assignment we had to complete, in short, he wanted a paper based around and exploring one mystical idea, we should if possible seek to expand on it or bring a new perspective to it.

That was it, I don't think you could get more vague or open ended with an assignment than that. The only real requirements were for it to be a paper and be on the Moonlit World, everything else were recommendations on how to make it good.

"That's not nearly enough information." Sandra sighed as she rubbed her forehead before looking to me. "We, all three of us, already have our ideas on what subjects we'd like to do our papers on, we've even done most of the research already. The problem is we don't know what to write about our subjects. We can't just take all the research we've done and dump it onto a piece of paper, we need to actually add something."

It was a common and understandable problem, we were only a month into class we didn't have enough experience with magecraft to bring in any new ideas, and while the paper wasn't due for a few more weeks that wasn't enough time to come up with something like that easily.

"Well, I've read a few thesis papers out of the library and a lot of them try to redevelop a mystery or discuss an issue with one as well as possible theoretical solutions." I'd started reading some of the paper's Victor had recently, I'd mentioned the paper Waver had assigned as well as an interest of my own, and Victor had admitted he had access to thesis papers written by other members of Clocktower, while not all of them were public most were.

He'd given me a few to read for ideas and after reading one on the fine line between reinforcing a physical object and its spiritual concepts he realized I actually enjoyed some of them papers. Since then he'd give me a paper or two to read over when I came in, it was surprising how much research was being done on even simpler concepts that I already knew.

There had been one paper on unusual elements and origins I'd found especially interesting. It discussed the overspecialization of magecraft that could be caused by them, and the problems and benefits of it. The only flaw I'd found was the author's english, it was fine but it was evident the woman who wrote it wasn't native to the language.

"That's a little much for us." Jack was gave me a worried look, one that he also shot Sandra who nodded in agreement. I nodded as well, that was a little beyond what was expected of new students like us.

"I know, but the idea is that rather than building something new you just take something that's already there and discuss it in more detail. And if you do add something you just add perspective, talk about it from a new angle or something." Though she seemed a bit sceptical Sandra seemed willing to try.

"Well, for an example my topic of choice is Clock Tower itself." She paused a second before elaborating. "Or rather, it's the power structure and governance of Clock Tower as well it's laws." I blinked for a second, surprised she had a subject that specific and well thought out but nothing to do with it.

"That's, well it's not actually magecraft but I guess it is a valid topic." Sandra gave me a look that made me hurry to explain myself. "It's just, I expected something more, exciting? I mean we're dealing with magic, kind of, and you choose to study the politics of it?" I mean, I had read _Internal Workings of the Magus Association_ on Victor's recommendation, but I'd been far more interested in _The Subtle Complexities of Transmutative Thaumaturgy_.

"I told her the same thing!" Jack spoke up, slamming his hand on the table as he did. "C'mon woman, don't you want some fun in your life?" Sandra shot Jack a dirty look as he spoke.

"I was studying political science in University before Professor Velvet recruited me. You might not be able to understand it but I do enjoy this." I blinked a few times as an idea came to me.

"That might work." I spoke out loud, though it was mostly to myself.

"Uh, what might work?" Adam was giving me an odd look as Jack and Sandra continued to bicker. I quickly interrupted them.

"Sandra, what if you compare Clock Tower to other forms of government?" There was a look of confusion on her face that quickly faded as she realized what I was implying.

"That might work, Clock Tower is old, few governments exist that were around when it was founded and even those have changed drastically since then. Though some differences might be solely from the lower population it has jurisdiction over others might stem from the presence of magecraft or the self imposed isolation it suffers from." I started chuckling as the woman got a bit carried away.

"It sounds like you've got your idea." Sandra flushed slightly at the realization of how excited she'd gotten, before coughing into her hand and composing herself.

"Yes, thank you for the assistance." She gave a small smile of appreciation, a gesture I returned in kind. Of course the moment was ruined when Jack started leaning forwards and shouting.

"Oh! Me next! I wanna do mine on Projection, that spell where you create stuff out of prana!" I sighed, partly at the informal term and partly at the drastic oversimplification.

"You should probably call it Gradiation Air if you're going to write a paper on it, and don't use the term spell, they're mysteries, thaumaturgy, or magecraft." Jack just wave me off casually, and if he weren't such a friendly guy I probably would've taken offense to it, instead I just gave a sigh and kept talking. "So, what do you want to do with Gradiation Air? It's pretty much a useless mystery outside of a learning aid, and you need something to talk about."

"Then I just have to think of a use for it." He casually waved me off before he perked with an idea. "Oh, I know. How about fighting?" He proceeded to pantomime swinging a swords around and I could only gape for a few seconds.

"Fighting? With Projected weaponry? No way, anything you make would break to easily and it'd be weaker than the original. And once it's broken you're left empty handed with no time to make a new one." Rather than listen to the sane man preaching centuries of accumulated knowledge Jack just brushed me off.

"The you make disposable weapons. Like an arrow or something, maybe bullets." He pretended to draw the string on an invisible bow as he spoke, before shifting over to a finger gun. I only sighed, his mind was set and while it was an ineffective and terrible idea it was at least a new one he seemed intent on and capable of exploring.

So I gave up on him and turned to the last member of the group. "What about you?" Adam seemed to flinch under my scrutiny for a second before resolving himself.

"I want to talk about Formalcraft." I was surprised about that one.

"Really? That's more advanced than what we're covering in class." The boy gave me a bit of a petulant look.

"I know, I've been reading ahead a bit is all." He gave me a sidelong look, he probably expected me to say something but I just kept quiet and waited for him to keep going. Eventually he did. "I didn't know what to do before but I think I've got an idea now. Formalcraft is pretty much only used as support, containing and filtering for experiments, at the most it's used to help build Bounded Fields."

He paused again, to see if I'd comment on what he'd said. I didn't.

"I wanna look into other uses for it too, maybe all I'll end up with is a list of reasons why it can't be used for anything else, but I can probably make that work too." I nodded in response, a small smile on my lips.

"That seems good. Anything else you need help with on that?" Adam paused for a second in thought before shaking his head. Satisfied with what he'd gotten. "That's good." I made to take a bite when he interrupted me with a new question.

"Wait. What's your topic then?" I gave the boy a smile as the entire table turned towards me, like he was missing some kind of inside joke. I reached down and grabbed my suitcase, setting it on the table and undoing the latches. I grabbed my book out of it before shutting it again and returning it to the floor.

I placed the heavy book that I'd almost finished cover up on the table,

"I'm looking into the common issues with Formalcraft and possible solutions to them." There was a spark of curiosity and excitement in boy's eye as he realized we had both been researching the same topic.

*line break*

Adam and I had been talking avidly for a while now. While Sandra and Jack had started out listening and occasionally asking the two of us questions about formalcraft eventually they gave up and started their own discussion.

Adam had apparently been rather interested in formalcraft when he discovered it was essentially magic circles. He explained that his circuits hadn't been of the best quality and he didn't think he'd mind the wait or setup time so formalcraft had seemed like a good fit for him.

Granted he hadn't been able to start practicing it yet, but it wasn't like I had either. That wasn't required for the paper, we only needed to know about the theory of it all. Our discussion became even more lively when we realized how well our topics synchronized. Adam was going to adress alternate uses for formalcraft, while I was discussing problems with formalcraft and potential solutions.

I was looking at ways to get around the problems and Adam was looking at ways they weren't used because of these problems.

We were discussing an idea about putting the symbology on a surfaced that wasn't fastened when someone else approached the table.

"I see that despite all common sense Lord el Melloi II ended up following through on that ridiculous whim of his." The entire table paused and looked towards the newcomer. Fine brown hair and sharp green eyes looked over us like we were some kind of unfortunate stain. The man was taller than either Jack or I and wore a two piece suit that looked like it cost more than I did.

"I can't believe that man is foolish enough to believe you lot will accomplish anything of worth." He scoffed at us dismissively before Sandra chose to speak up.

"Excuse me? Who would you be to talk about us and our professor like that?" Her tone contained barely hidden venom, and a potential threat of violence. The man didn't seem to notice, or maybe he didn't care, because he made no attempt to improve his attitude when he continued talking.

"I am Alexander von Rohr, third son of the Rohr family. While I may lack the inheritance that my eldest brother can claim my lineage is at least superior to that of the name Velvet, not to mention any no name dog he's dragged into these halls." I thought the only thing holding Sandra back from attacking the man was that she was on the opposite side of the table. Then I saw Jack's hand on her arm.

"So you're part of a real lineage then right? So you grew up as a magus then, that's cool." I was surprised that out of everyone at the table it was Jack trying to defuse the situation, I could tell from the slight tension in his tone that he didn't like this man at all, but was doing this only to avoid a confrontation.

I couldn't blame him either, this man was a magus, a real one not like us who only knew a handful of mysteries and probably couldn't even use them in a fight. This guy could probably kill all of us before someone else stepped in, and he wouldn't even get in any real trouble for it.

Magus die all the time after all, and we didn't have any influential families to avenge us if we did.

"My noble lineage and mastering my family's craft from a young age is not 'cool'. Though I suppose your admiration is appreciated it's not needed from the likes of you." I could feel his sneer as he looked over all of us.

"Honestly, I don't have the faintest idea why the Lord El Melloi would think you could accomplish anything that real magus haven't already done. You will never surpass us at our craft." He seemed ready to leave at that, but surprisingly the youngest of us interrupted.

"I don't think Professor Velvet expects us to end up better than you, just, different." If looks could kill the one Alexander gave Adam would have left him a puddle on the floor, and while the boy did shrink in on himself he continued speaking.

"I think we're meant to bring a new perspective, because we weren't raised like you we think about this stuff differently and we can look at things in a new way or maybe find something weird that you'd just take for granted. And if we do bring that new perspective or find something unusual, skilled magus like your family might be able to do something with it we can't."

The magus seemed to consider this for a moment before scoffing. "As if my thaumaturgy needs any aid from your ilk to improve." Satisfied that he'd had the last word Alexander walked away, the rest of us letting simply out of a desire to be done with it.

Adam let out a breath, his chest heaving from the action. I gave the kid a smile and placed a hand on his shoulder in reassurance, he'd done well. Sandra on the other hand released her pent up emotions much more violently.

"I can't stand that kind of man! To think you're so far above others that they are simply less than you? It's ridiculous." The pounding of her hand on the table cemented her words, the brief pause afterwards filled with the clatter of dishes and silverware that had been jostled by the action.

"I'm pretty sure we all agree with you," Jack spoke up, and for the first time since I met him he didn't seem happy to be speaking, "but it's not like there's much we can do about it. I don't like it, I'm pretty sure none of us do. But like it or not that von Rohr guy is above us in every way here, status, knowledge, skill, probably wealth too if his family is as powerful as he's making them out to be."

"Then are you saying there's nothing we can do?" Sandra was just getting more frustrated at this rate.

"We can learn." All eyes turned to me as I spoke. "That's what we're here for right? If he knows more than we do we just gotta work to change that, if he's more skilled then us we just gotta practice. Waver brought us here because he thought we could learn to be just as good as any other magus. I say we do our best to prove him right."

"Well, I guess the best place to start would be those papers wouldn't it?"Jack gave a sigh and leaned back in his chair, and while his posture and voice said he wasn't eager to start the small smile on his lips said the opposite. Soon it was a smile we all shared.

*line break*

"Hmm, common issues with Formalcraft and possible solutions to them?" I nodded as Victor repeated my words. The huge man rubbed his chin in thought.

I had come to him for some advice regarding my essay, the librarian was the only experienced magus I had any familiar relationship with outside of Waver, and even if he couldn't help me directly he'd probably be able to point me in the direction of some books that could.

"You're picking a pretty tough topic for your first paper aren't you?" I blinked, stunned for a second. That wasn't the response I'd been expecting

"Really?"

"Yeah, most of the problems with Formalcraft are inherent to the system, stuff like the charge time, them being stationary, and how long it takes to make them. Solutions to those aren't exactly easy, and you wouldn't be the first novice magus to take a swing at it either. Lot's of newbies decide they'll take a look at the problem, probably for the same reasons you are."

"You think their reasons are the same as mine?" I found myself doubting that so many before me had done the same thing for the same reasons. Victor raised an eyebrow and I stared back challengingly. The man raised a single finger as he began counting reasons.

"You think you'll be able to use what you learn writing the paper once you start using Formalcraft in your own experiments. The system of magic is so common but few families specialize in it so there'll be plenty of information available." Victor kept going raising a finger for each new reason he listed.

"The issues with it are so well documented that you'll be able to get even more info on those. You're a new magus, you don't need to do much for your first paper so even theoretical solutions would be fine, even if they never work in practice." He held his four fingers towards me, both eyebrows raised.

"Need me to keep going?" I felt myself flush a bit and shift in embarrassment.

"I'm legitimately curious?" Even to myself it sounded like a question. Victor turned his hand towards himself, giving it an odd look, before flicking the thumb out.

"There we go, got 'em all." He placed his hand down on the desk in front of him, giving me a challenging look. I knew he was right, but that didn't necessarily mean I was wrong either.

"Even if this is a mistake it's one that I should make so I can learn from it. Maybe I will write a stupid and useless paper that Clock Tower already has dozens of, that just means my next one will better." Victor tilted his head back in forth in thought for a second before nodding.

"Yeah that works." He reached into a drawer on his desk and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen before he began writing quickly. He paused towards the end before writing a bit more and handing me the page.

"A list of books for you to check out on the subject, some of them you'll only want to look at a few chapters though." I looked down at the list, there were five different names on it. "You get started on those, I'll pull out some of the papers people have made before while you do that so you can get a better idea of what's been done before." I paused, for a second before nodding.

"Thank you, this is more than I could've asked for." Victor paused for a second and looked me over.

"Yeah, you aren't my apprentice, you're just some punk that likes to read my books. Don't know why I'm helping you this much." I was a little worried he was going to stop helping but he just shrugged it off. "Whatever, just get going before I change my mind." I nodded and began walking off, looking at the list in my hands for the volumes I'd be searching for.

*line break*

"Hmm, you'll probably want to cover the issues with leylines better, any formalcraft that you wanna transport is gonna need to be crazy complex or specified to certain conditions you'll need to replicate to use it again." I nodded at Victor's words, scribbling a few more lines onto my notes as he glanced over the outline I had for my paper.

"Alright, looks good to me. Don't forget to keep yourself modest and acknowledge the limits of your theories, more traditional magus won't want to acknowledge your ideas already, but if you keep reminding them how much better they are than you they'll be more willing to listen. But don't make it obvious or no one will take you seriously."

I nodded in understanding, even though I didn't like I couldn't do anything about the fact that as a first generation magus I was considered something of a second class citizen here. Most 'true' magus wouldn't think I wasn't worth their time, maybe my line would do something noteworthy in a few generations, but until then I was a minor magus who could die anyday and they wouldn't even notice I was gone.

I looked over to Victor, glad the man had decided to help me with my paper, he was the only one I could really turn to for this level of help, Waver was too busy for anything more than a few questions when he was free. Victor on the other hand didn't have much to do when he was watching the library, paperwork and sorting books occasionally, but for the most time he just spent his time relaxing.

Which brought up an interesting line of thought actually.

"Why are you the librarian anyway?" The man gave me a weird look and a raised brow, asking for elaboration. "I mean, you don't really seem like a bookish sort of guy, more like a crack heads man."

That wasn't to say he wasn't smart or anything, really the guy knew his stuff, I wouldn't be asking for his help otherwise. But normally your librarian wasn't the kind of guy that could make the bouncers shit their pants.

"Hmm, that's one thing you should probably understand better about magus." The mountain of a man stroked his chin for a bit before nodding and continuing to speak. "Ya see, the books in this library are valuable, and while magus tend to avoid crossing Clock Tower or breaking its rules anytime they think they can get away with it they try."

"So you're deterrence then?" Victor nodded at my words.

"Yeah, the only thing better than stopping a thief is stopping them from being a thief. That's why Waver gave me the job, I used to be an enforcer, had a pretty good record of it too, so not a whole lot of people wanna cross me when I've got the whole of Clock Tower to back me up."

Though I listened to everything that the librarian said there was one part that caught my interest more than the rest.

"Wait, you were an enforcer? That's like, one of Clock Tower's soldiers right?"

"Well, calling us soldiers isn't too accurate, but it's not that far off either. Enforcers are the militant arm of the Clock Tower, we're bounty hunters more than anything, enforcer is a title given to you by the higher ups, it's mainly used to tell people you're more prestigious than freelancers and that you're reliable enough to be trusted on your missions."

"That seems like a lot to give up just to be a librarian."

"Well this is a hell of a lot safer than chasing Dead Apostles and rogue magus over the globe, though I do still work as a freelancer every once in a while that's mostly when someone needs a personal favor."

Victor paused and reached into his pocket, pulling out a pocket watch of all things. He spoke up again after a moment of looking at it. "Alright, I'm closing up now so get your crap together and get out." At his words I grabbed my satchel, scrambling to throw pens and paper inside of it.

"Thanks for your help, I doubt I could've done this much without you." Victor just waved me off.

"Yeah, yeah. I helped you out cuz I wanted to, nothing else. Now just get outta my hair before I decide it wasn't worth it."

*line break*

I sat with my legs kicked up in front of me in classroom, burning time by practicing reinforcement and alteration on my pen. It was a bad habit I'd gotten into, one that had cost me a dozen pens already, but it did get me a lot of practice with the mysteries.

I had handed Waver my paper a bit ago and at his offer I'd stayed in the room while he read over it. He was doing so slowly, it wasn't that long of a paper but I knew from experience that reading something quickly and slowing down to actually think through something you read were very different things, and I was glad that my professor was giving that much attention and thought to my work.

I spun the pen in my fingers for a second before stopping it. A moment later it spun again, though longer and slimmer than before.

The troubling part of altering my pen was ensuring I didn't break it in the process. Gaia, the every will of the planet itself, would oppose any magecraft and treat it as something that shouldn't exist. Almost any magecraft would be influenced by Gaia and most of the prana cost for thaumaturgy was actually spent on opposing Gaia rather than the effect you were trying to create in the first place. But no matter how powerful a magus is eventually Gaia would reassert control and return things to how they should be.

When possible that simply means reverting any changes, but sometimes Gaia will simply destroy whatever aberration it finds. What this means for my pen is that if my alteration is too drastic Gaia will simply turn the pen into various pieces of plastic and metal as the thaumaturgy collapses. This is actually one of the most common causes of death for a magus, a mystery performed wrong could cause Gaia to target the magus directly even after they've cut off their prana.

The remains in these cases are anything but pretty.

"John." I dropped my pen on the table, leaving it there alongside my case as I hopped to my feet and walked to the front of the room. Waver had just finished reading, and he flipped back through the pages and stopped on one as I walked up.

"You make an analogy here, you compare powering formalcraft to putting petrol in a car, and here you talk about creating a system similar to a mobile phone, where instead of hardwiring the system to the leylines for power you could use another mystery to power the formalcraft, a battery."

I nodded, I knew exactly what parts of the paper he was referring to, I was actually rather proud of them too. I thought it helped get my point across while also being understandable and relatable.

"Remove it?" I blinked in confusion.

"What?"

"Remove it, take it out of the paper. I don't care if you replace it with something else or just scrap it."

"Why?" Waver gave me a look that said, plain and simple, that I was stupid. When it became obvious I didn't know why I was stupid he started rubbing his temples.

"You made an analogy to technology, in a paper about magecraft." I just stared, waiting for it to make sense.

"You can't do that, no 'real' magus would take you seriously. Magus consider their craft to be inherently superior to technology and don't consider it worth their time. Forget taking you serious, some people would call you a heretic and want your head just for comparing the two."

"Really? Magus hate technology that much?" I gave the man an incredulous look. I was well aware that he knew better than me on this and so many other subjects, but it just seemed kinda ridiculous.

"Really. Here, change the paper, bring it back when you're done." There was a new problem with that though.

"I thought it was due today though?" This wasn't supposed to be some kind of first or second draft, it was supposed to be done.

"With magus there's one thing that matters above all else." Waver paused as he pulled something out of one of pockets. "Results. If you can actually accomplish something then magus don't generally care how it was done. Yes, there's somethings that magus won't accept unless the results are truly spectacular, technology being one of those, some things like landlines, cars, and typewriters they'll use because of how much time they save. But in general they avoid most everything."

"That does explain why I had to type this on a typewriter." Victor had made me do it, the librarian hadn't even given me a chance to refuse or question it.

I grabbed the paper as Waver handed it to me pulling a cigarette out of the pack he'd had in his pocket at the same time. He snapped his fingers and a moment later it was lit. I found myself staring at the phenomenon.

"Do that again."

"Excuse me?"

"Ah, sorry. I just thought I, felt something?" It was a poor explanation, but also the best one I could find myself giving. It felt like as I watched him do that something had been about to click in my head, and I knew that if he could do it even one more time it'd all make sense.

Waver shrugged and moved the cigarette away from his mouth after taking a drag. He moved the hand carrying the drug off to the side as he held his other in front of him. After pausing to make sure I was watching he snapped again, a small spark of flame accompanying the action.

"Are you using magecraft to amplify the friction caused until it's enough to create a spark?" Waver blinked a few times before a small smile hit his lips.

"Yes, though there's also some manipulation to push the energy up, away from my hands and fingers otherwise I might burn myself." I nodded, understanding.

"That's impressive John. It's not a very complicated mystery but to figure out how it works so quickly and with no aid." The teacher took another drag as he paused in thought. "Maybe you have a fire element, that might have helped you figure it out."

"Is there a way for me to find out about my element?" I knew of several from reading, but they all required a more experienced magus to help with the process.

"I'll be testing all of the students for the basic five before the class is over. Until then you'll have to make do without knowing." I wanted to say something but I simply nodded, there was nothing I could do to change his mind and while I was eager to test my element there was a lot else for me to be eager about too.

"So does this mean I'm good?" Waver paused his smoking to look me up and down, before nodding.

"Yeah, fix that paper for me first, but then you can start practicing formalcraft. Just make sure you show me anything you're planning to draw before you start." I shook my fist in victory, nodding as I turned around to get my things. I'd have to go retype the pages with the problems on them first but then it was time to start on some serious magecraft.


End file.
